Sorority is one of those words that should appear obligatorily in any dictionary of feminism. Both it and its derivatives (“saludos sórores”, “sororear”, etc.) tell us about an idea: solidarity and cooperation among women. In other words, it is a term that is becoming more and more popular because individualism among women is losing followers.

In this article we will see what exactly is meant by sorority , and why the word related to feminism and in general the currents of left-wing activism have appeared.

What does sorority mean?

One of the most controversial aspects of feminism has to do with its tendency to give preferential treatment to the feminine, the experiences that only women live. From a non feminist point of view, the concept of sisterhood reflects just that: a word of recent creation that attracts attention for being, apparently, a way of avoiding the use of a term “fraternity”, for being masculine and referring to the brothers.

But the interesting thing about this choice of words is that it has the power to make us question things. Instead of thinking that the term sorority is part of a strategy to avoid everything that refers to men, it can make us wonder why there are so few words with feminine connotations that apply to all human beings, men and women.

When we say sorority we are referring not only to solidarity between women , but we also take into account the context in which this solidarity takes place. And that context has to do with the historical discrimination and sexism that occur and have occurred for millennia through what in feminist theory is known as patriarchy.

The patriarchal use of language

The fact that “fraternal” comes from “brothers” and that it is used regardless of the gender of the people to whom it applies can be considered a simple anecdote, something without the greatest political or social importance. In reality, few people would bother to think about it at all.

However, it is not strange, if we think about it, that the word by default is used indistinctly for male groups or for mixed groups, since this creates situations of ambiguity: when we say “brothers”, are they all men or is there also at least one woman in the group?

Simone de Beauvoir, one of the philosophers who laid the foundations of second wave feminism, gave one of the keys to understanding this. She wrote that the meaning of the feminine and the concept of what it is to be a woman is basically what is left over when the human and the masculine are equated. That is, historically, because of a set of unequal power dynamics between men and women known as patriarchy , it is assumed that humanity is equivalent to masculinity, while the feminine is defined as the denial of what is not masculine and, therefore, not human either.

Thus, for Beauvoir the reference figure is always a man, and the woman emerges by subtracting and adding qualities to this “mould”. This is what is not masculine, “the other”.

For example, some brands offer a line of products that consist of the women’s version of their flagship product, and they usually market it by playing with the color pink. However, neither the original product can be considered the male version of the product, nor the color it is wearing makes it obvious that it is for men. Normally the feminine is a subsidiary of the masculine , and the sisterhood is one of the many initiatives that fight this principle to, from the language, influence how we analyze the social reality and the inequalities between sexes.

However, the idea that by modifying language it is possible to favour the establishment of equality dynamics has been widely debated and criticised, especially from theoretical positions linked to philosophical materialism, such as Marxism. This is because it is viewed with scepticism, first, that changing language would significantly modify ideas in the sense intended from the beginning, and second, that what is important is the change of ideas before there has been a material change in the objective reality in which people live.

Starting from inequality

One of the ideas on which the concept of sorority is based is that women, by the fact of being women, are in a disadvantageous position. That is why they must cooperate to access rights and freedoms that have historically been denied to them.

Such a complicated task cannot be faced from individualism , but it needs the joint action of many people, capable of breaking old dynamics of submission: micromachisms, unfair laws, working environments where women have more difficulties to prosper, etc.

The equivalence between women

As we have seen, the concept of sorority is the idea that expresses how important cooperation and solidarity among women is and the awareness of the dehumanization of women . It is understood that, since women’s specific problems go beyond the individual, they must be faced not from individualism, but through solidarity among equals.

The word itself, sorority, emphasizes the fact that it only applies to female persons, since “soror” is another way of saying “blood sister”, and at the same time it reinforces the idea that women are equal in their disadvantaged situation before men.

Thus, it is not that men are despised, but rather that it is understood that, since they are not submissive on the basis of gender, there is no point in expecting a similar structure of cooperation that is transversal among all men. Such an alliance would hardly have any objectives to achieve, since they have already been achieved from the outset.

Bibliographic references:

  • Lincoln, B. (2008). Women and public space: construction and exercise of citizenship. Mexico C. F.: Universidad Iberoamericana.
  • Simón Rodríguez, M. E. (2002). Democracia vital : mujeres y hombres hacia la plena ciudadanía. Madrid: Narcea.